How to Embrace God’s Plans and Transform Your Life in the New Year

- Glad you're here this weekend. I love this weekend. This is the weekend like after the rush of Christmas

before we press down the accelerator on the new year, this is this weekend. It's the one weekend where we get to go ah.

You got this one weekend to consider, to think about this next year. To prayerfully think about what God has

for your life this next year. Truth of the matter is is we look forward to 2019 this next year.

There's a lot that's gonna happen this next year that you don't know about yet. Shaundelle and I were talking about this yesterday.

How many things happened last year we had no idea they were gonna happen as the year began. Same thing's true for every one of us every year.

But I would like to start with not what you know or don't know about this next year, but what God knows, what God knows about your life this next year.

It's in this famous verse. You may have heard it. Jeremiah 29:11 says this.

God says I know. God says to you I know what I'm planning for you says the Lord.

I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. So amidst all the unknowns of a year in front of us,

we can know that God has good plans for us and you can know also that whatever your circumstances, no matter how good or how bad your circumstances are

or they look this next year, whatever your circumstances, you have everything to look forward to. How can I say that in spite of bad circumstances?

Because God says this about us in Philippians 3:12-14. Paul was talking about his life. The Apostle Paul was talking about looking backwards

and looking forwards and here's what he says. I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. That goal is still happening in your life.

The greatest things are still ahead in your life regardless of the circumstances that you're going through. So starting from this hope that we have

in God's promises as we look to a new year, I wanted to talk for just a few minutes today about what you and I can do to make the new year new

'cause if I'm gonna have a new year, I wanna have a new year. That's not happy same year.

It's happy new year, right. But a lot of us live the same year again and again and again.

So how do you make the new year new? One of the keys and the thing we're gonna look at together today.

One of the keys to living a new year in the new year is asking yourself the right questions at the beginning of the year.

What are the right questions that you can ask? And this is one of the things I love about the Bible. The Bible challenges us to ask

the right questions about our lives. We're all asking questions about ourselves but the Bible, it has a way of challenging us to ask the kind of questions

that go to the heart of who we are. It has a way of challenging us to ask the kind of questions that go beyond the shallow, the surface,

and go to the depth of who we are, and my prayer this last few weeks thinking about this message has been,

Lord what are the questions we need to be asking ourselves as we start a new year? I often pray in this kind of way.

Pastor Rick taught us all as we teach God's word to pray in this kind of way. Lord, you know who's gonna be here this weekend.

You know what are needs are. And only you can know the right questions that we need to ask.

There's 50. There's 100 different questions we can ask from the Bible, but I've narrowed it down to just three.

I woke up in the morning many times going, yeah that's one of 'em. Yeah, that's one of 'em.

I'm prayerful that this is an answer to some of your prayers. That these are the right questions

that you need at the beginning of a new year. The kind of questions that will cause this next year to be the best year of growth and blessing

and change that you've ever had. Three simple questions. Number one.

These questions all come from verses in the Bible. First question is what do I need to put off and what do I need to put on?

What do I need to put off and what do I need to put on? Sometimes as we start the year, you can look at websites about the kinds of questions

to ask for your business or yourself or your family. We ask questions like what do I need to start? What do I need to stop?

What do I need to do more of? What do I need to do less of? What I like about this question that the Bible asks,

what do I need to put on and put off is it goes to the heart of me. It's not something that you need to start

or you need to do differently. It's what do I need to do differently? What needs to change in my life?

Ephesians 4:22-24 is one of the places the Bible asks this question. You were taught with regard to your former way of life

to put off your old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires and to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self,

created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. So it's this extremely simple process. It doesn't take much to get it.

You put off the old. You put on the new. The old here is what used to be.

It's everything in your life without Christ. It's the old way of thinking. It's the old way of doing.

You put off the old and you put on the new. The new is what is. What God has given you in Christ.

The gift of new character. The gift of new passions. The gift of new things that are important in your life.

You put on the new. New thoughts, new words, new actions. That's what it means to put on the new.

New thoughts, new words, new actions. Put off the old, put on the new. And again and again as the Bible talks about this,

it says it's like taking off it's like clothes. It's like taking off an old shirt and putting on a new shirt.

That's how it works. You do this again and again and again. If you try to put on new clothes

without taking off the old clothes, the new ones aren't gonna fit. So you have to take off the old

before you can put on the new, but if you take off the old clothes and don't put on any new clothes,

you're walking around naked. That doesn't work either. So you also have to put on the new.

It takes both. You don't just stop doing the old thing. You start doing something new.

That's the power of this process. You have to replace the old with the new. Otherwise, you just leave this empty space in your life.

I've taken out something old, you leave an empty space, and pretty soon it gets filled with the same old thing or a new old thing or a new bad thing,

and you don't have anything new in your life. You gotta replace it with something new. So, you stop the old.

You stop gossiping. I know it makes you feel important. I know it gives you an adrenaline rush,

but you stop gossiping but you can't just stop gossiping. You gotta replace it. You gotta start encouraging with the new.

You stop envying others. Maybe you spent a lot of last year envying other people and what they had.

You stop envying others and instead you start giving to others. You replace it with the new.

You stop sexual immorality and you start a new purity in your thought, in your actions. You stop being angry but you can't just say,

I'm gonna stop being angry. You gotta replace it with the new. You start being grateful in your life.

Now this is a simple process, but like you, I've gotten tripped up on it many, many, many times. So I wanted to give you a picture of that.

I'm gonna bring out a couple things. We're gonna have some things brought out now. An old thing and a new thing.

It's the end of the holiday season. We've had a lot of sugar this season. So I think you're probably gonna understand

what the old and new is as you look at this two things 'cause over here we have this wonderful looking piece of chocolate cake.

Let's call that the old. You know, the sugar that you need to get out of your house right now.

Over here we got the new. We've got this fruit bowl. If you're gonna change.

If you're gonna say I'm gonna eat differently. You understand this isn't just about cake and fruit. I hope you understand that.

If you're gonna change, then you gotta put off the old and put on the new but if you try to put off the old by just focusing on the old and saying,

I'm putting that off. Really, I'm not touching that cake. That good looking cake.

I'm not touching that cake. I'm not gonna eat that cake. I'm not gonna participate in that cake.

The more you think about the cake, the closer you're getting to the cake and you're gonna start to smell the cake.

It's so close. If you just had a fork. In fact you can just grab the cake

and you can have the cake. As long as you're caught up in the old, getting closer and closer to the old,

you're never going to change. Now some of you, you have the willpower to be close to the cake and not eat the cake

and you're feeling pretty good about yourself, but I'm telling you if your willpower is causing you to stay here and say no all the time,

you're still caught up in cakeness. You're still in this world. You're still in the no zone.

That's where you are. It's called the Pharisee syndrome. The Pharisees were these guys in Jesus day.

Their whole lives, their whole identity were in what they said no to and some of you, you're saying no to the cake but you're caught up in pride

because you're so good at saying no to the cake. So you stay close to everybody else that's saying yes to the cake,

and you feel good about yourself. You need something new. The only way to get rid of the old is turn around

and go the opposite direction and choose something new and as you get closer and closer to something new, all of a sudden you're in a different place.

You're a long way from the old. Not that you could never get there again, but you're not just one step away now.

You're living something new. And as long as you're focused on the new, you don't even see the old.

There's a new way of living. You put off the old and you put on the new and you do this again and again and again and again in life.

Put off the old, put on the new. Put off the old, put on the new. Now, I've been trying to do this for decades.

Sometimes successfully, sometimes not successfully. Any of you who have been trying to live this life know that it's three steps forward two steps back many times,

but I do want to share with you in looking at my own life talking to many people about this over the years

that there are three big traps with this when you're trying to put off the old and put on the new to watch out for

as we walk into a new year. Three big traps. Watch out first of all for the trap of perfectionism.

Thinking that somehow because you decide I'm gonna do this, yes for the first time I'm going to put off the old and put on the new that now you're gonna be perfect.

I got some news for you. 2019 is not gonna be a perfect year. Hate to disappoint you but it's just the truth.

There's no perfection until we get to heaven, so there's gonna be struggles this next year. Even more disappointing here's the truth.

You're not going to be perfect in 2019. May as well just accept that right now 'cause it's a trap. Satan wants to say to you, you know what?

You're gonna have a perfect year, and then the moment you fall, the moment you do the first wrong thing,

you think that's it. May as well give up. I failed.

The truth of the matter is you're not perfect, but God is perfecting you moment by moment and Satan would love to get you in this trap of thinking

because you're not perfect, you may as well not even try. Sometime this year in some area that you're working on, you're gonna be growing.

Good things are gonna be happening and here's the trap that Satan is gonna throw at you. He's gonna say this thought in your mind.

You know what? You got this one. You're perfect now in that one.

The day you think that, you're gonna fall the next minute. Anybody else discovered this? You know what I'm talking about?

'Cause you need God's strength. The day you think you can handle it on your own, that's the day that you fail,

so watch out for the trap of perfectionism. Also, a second trap is watch out for the what I call the one and done trap.

That's the idea that great. Here we are beginning of a new year. I'm gonna make this decision right now

for the entire next year. I'm gonna put off the old and put on the new. Done.

Can't do it that way. This is a daily decision. This is a moment by moment decision.

This is not a once a year decision, once in a lifetime decision. You're making it all the time.

That's why I love the picture of clothes. You change your clothes every day. At least I hope you change your clothes every day

and because you do that you're wearing something new every day. Those of you that are preschool moms and dads

and you're doing some potty training, your kids might be changing their clothes 10 times a day right now and let's admit it.

Some of us are still in spiritual potty training. We're changing our clothes a lot, but God's loving us through it all,

so it's not a one-and-done. It's an every moment decision and then the third big trap is

the this doesn't feel right trap. When you start to put on the new. I'm gonna tell you it's not gonna feel right at first

'cause you got used to the old, so you start to put on the new. It just doesn't feel right.

If your whole persona is sarcasm. That's how you make people laugh. That's how you relate to people.

If you decide I'm gonna put off sarcasm. I'm gonna put off tearing down people with my words and I'm gonna start to put on

building people up with my words. The minute you start to do that, first you're gonna think who am I?

Who is this person? How are these words coming out of my mouth? And your friends are gonna look at you like who are you?

I mean what did you do with my friend? You used to be sarcastic. Used to cut people down.

I loved it when you did that, but you've decided to be a different kind of person. Listen just because you're familiar with

that old, ugly, smelly sweatshirt doesn't mean you should keep wearing it. God has something new for you.

God has something different for you and it might feel unfamiliar at first, but it won't take long until it starts to click

and you start to experience the new energy and the new strength and the new sense of God's grace and power in your life that comes from living the new.

You put off the old, you put on the new. You put off the old, you put on the new. You do this every day all day.

Now, as an old line from a movie that this reminds me of that might help some of us to get the picture, so let me show you that up on the screen.

- Wax on right hand. Wax off left hand. Wax on wax off.

Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Wax on wax off. Don't forget to breathe.

Very important. Wax on, wax off. Wax on.

- Now those of you that are Karate Kid fans remember that he had him waxing on and waxing off because it taught him muscle memory so he could do karate

and when you put on and put off and put on and put off, you make that decision, there's a kind of spiritual muscle memory that kicks in

and all of a sudden you start to see yourself in a new way. You start to live in a new way. It might feel unfamiliar at first

but more and more it starts to feel like the you that God made you to be. It doesn't come in a day,

but you will see God changing you. Slowly but surely God changes us. We don't become perfect but he does perfect us.

The way that Jesus talked to people becomes more and more the way that you talk to people. The way that Jesus related to people

becomes more and more the way that you relate to people. The way that Jesus handled his time becomes more and more the way that you handle your time.

That's what happens as you're doing this. The key to putting off the old is putting on the new. I just wanted to show you a couple of verses

about what the new really is, how powerful the new really is. There in the book of Romans.

Romans 13:12 says this. The night is nearly over. The day is almost here.

So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Putting on the new is like putting on an armor of light.

Let's admit it. We live in a dark world. Many times we face dark things in this world.

We need an armor of light. That's how powerful the new is in our lives. You want to see how powerful it is?

He ups the ante just a couple of verses later when he says this. Romans 13:14.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Even stronger than an armor of light, it's like you're putting on Jesus Christ. You're carrying his strength,

his compassion, his personality, his love, his grace into every circumstance in your life. He empowers you to live in a new kind of way.

You're putting on Jesus Christ. Now to put on the new there's many steps that we can take this next year,

but there's a practical step that some of you may not have taken yet that I want to strongly encourage you to take

'cause it changes the way that you see yourself. The Bible says this in Galatians 3:27. For as many of you as were baptized

into Christ have put on Christ. The Bible says there's both the spiritual baptism and a physical baptism.

You're baptized into Christ. You're immersed, that's what the word means, into Christ spiritually when you put your faith in him.

If you haven't done that yet, you can do that right now 'cause it's not based on what you do. It's based on what he did.

He came and he lived his life for you and died on a cross for you. So right now if you're not sure

I'm connected to Jesus Christ, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ, he's saying I want to give you this gift,

and the way you accept it is by telling him yes I accept it. I accept your gift of forgiveness. I accept your gift of new life.

In fact, you might pray that prayer right now. If you're not sure you've prayed that prayer, I encourage you right now in your mind.

Just say Jesus Christ I accept your gift of forgiveness. I accept your gift of new life and that is your spiritual baptism

in that moment he comes into your life, but the Bible also says there's a physical baptism and that physical baptism shows other people

and also says to ourselves what happened in our spiritual baptism. When you're baptized physically,

it doesn't save you but it does say to you and others who you are now in Christ and if you want to put on the new,

one of the keys is this physical baptism. It's a first step. I've talked to a lot of people

who think you know I'm gonna be baptized when I get perfect, when I get like holy. Well you're never gonna be baptized then.

I'm telling you that. And baptism it's not the finish line of the Christian life. It's the starting block and one of the reasons you may not

have the power that you need to see yourself in a new way is because you've never taken this step. You've never felt worthy of it.

Jesus is saying I'm the one who makes you worthy, so if you've not been baptized, I want to encourage you don't go into a new year

without taking this important spiritual step. We're gonna be baptizing after this service. You can go out and sign up.

We've got everything that's needed. Just be thinking about that the rest of this service and saying God is that something you want for me.

He'll tell you. He'll tell you. You put on the Lord Jesus Christ

and one of the ways you show that to yourself and others is through this step of baptism. So that's the first question.

What do I need to put off? What do I need to put on? Second question is this.

Where are the closed doors and where are the open doors? Where are the closed doors and where are the open doors? As I look toward a new year,

God tells us that he knows the plans that he has for us. So my question is how does he like let us in on the plans that he knows that he has for us

and we all of us we want him to download those plans into our brains. We want him to sky write them in the sky,

so we can take a picture of them and we just got it all laid out, but it doesn't happen that way.

God's plans for your life, they are not delivered. They are discovered and they're discovered oftentimes through this process of closed doors and open doors.

It's a process of faith. Look first of all at these verses about open doors in our lives.

The power of them. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16:9, Paul writes and says there is a wide open door

for a great work here although many opposed me. An open door is a place where God is working. God is working in your life.

God is working through your life. That is the place of an open door. It might be in your finances God places an open door.

It might be in your family God puts an open door. It might be in your personal growth. It might be in a ministry God provides an open door.

Now notice Paul says here many oppose me. There was an open door but there are also problems. Don't think the problems mean the door isn't open.

In fact, an open door often comes with problems but Paul says God's doing great work even though there's some problems.

There's something great about the doors that God opens. Next verse talks about it. Revelation 3:8.

Jesus says see I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. When God opens the door, no one can shut it.

I know some of you you are worn out from knocking on doors, not just this last year but maybe this last several years. You're just weary inside from trying to force doors open

and maybe they're good doors. They're good things but they just don't seem to be opening for you.

Make this next year instead of a year of you trying to force doors open, make this next year a year have you looking

for God's open doors because when God opens the door, no one can shut that door. That's the kind of door that you need in your life.

So how do you find God's open doors? How does that happen? Why does it seem to happen for some people

and not for other people? Well the Apostle Paul who had a lot of experience with this, there's an experience that he has in the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 16 of open doors and closed doors when he was on a missionary journey. He's out trying to tell people the good news of Jesus' love

and he's trying to go to different cities and the doors closed to some cities and opened to others and you learn a lot about open doors

and closed doors from his experience. So let me read this to you. It's a few verses and there's some old city names in here

but I think you'll get it as we go along. Acts 16:6-10 says this. Paul and his companions traveled

throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit. By the way, whenever you see like old names like that,

like if you're in your Bible study and they say hey read this and you're going is that Phrygia?

How do I read that? Just read it confidently. Everybody will think you know what you're talking about

and they'll go oh that's how you say that. That's just my Bible study tip for you. The went to the region of Phrygia and Galatia,

having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the Word of God in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia,

they tried to enter Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and they went down to Troas.

During the night Paul had a vision of a man in Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us.

After Paul had seen the vision we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them an open door.

So as you look at this experience, I want you to notice with me two things that Paul kept doing.

He kept trusting and he kept moving. He kept trusting and he kept moving. First he kept trusting.

He kept trusting that God had an open door in his life. We in our lives sometimes take closed doors too personally. We see a closed door and we think that's it.

God's done with me. Paul tries to go into Asia. The doors closed.

He could have thought well that's it. God doesn't want me on this missionary journey. I'm going home.

He doesn't have a purpose for my life anymore, but instead he just saw it as a closed door and started to look for the open door,

and we look at our lives and say, that business didn't work out. That's it.

God's done with me. She won't date me. He won't date me.

That's it. God's done with me. There's no open doors in my life.

No, it's just a closed door. It doesn't mean that God doesn't have any plans for you. Did you notice it says here

they were kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia? What's wrong with preaching the word

in the province of Asia? Why wouldn't the Holy Spirit let them do that and the answer is I don't know.

I mean there's good things that I want to do in my life, that you want to do in your life all the time and the door is closed,

and I don't know why the door is closed. I can look back on my life and see some of the reasons why sometimes.

Sometimes I know it's because if I'd gone through that door it would have hurt me. It was a good thing but it might have hurt me,

made me prideful or gotten me sidetracked. Sometimes I see that if I'd gone through that door, it would've kept somebody else from being able to do that

and God had in mind for them to do it not me and sometimes if I'd gone through that door, I couldn't have gone through that door.

That's where God wanted me to be, but I got to tell you that's not most of the time. Most of the time I don't know why

God closed the door but God knows. He doesn't have to tell you why. What he has to show you is the open door.

So you look for the open door. You keep trusting and I want you to notice it took closed doors to get them to the open doors.

So this next year let's make this a year of recognizing the wonder of closed doors in our lives. Thank you God for closed doors because God uses closed doors

to put us where he wants us, so that we can experience the open doors that he has for our lives,

but if you're gonna experience that, you have to do the second thing that Paul did here. He kept trusting but he also kept moving.

There was a closed door. He saw that it was closed, and so he kept moving from city to city.

No, that one's closed. No, that one's closed and finally he was, because he was moving directed towards

where God wanted him to be. God works best with moving objects. When you're moving he can divert you.

When you're standing still, it's hard to get you moving and a lot of us here's what we do. There's a closed door in our lives.

We really want that door to be open so we camp out at the closed door. You know what I'm talking about?

We say God I'm getting my like easy-chair here. I'm gonna build a little hut here. I'm staying here until you open that door

and we call it faith but it's really stubbornness. Let's just be honest, we're being stubborn. We're saying, God, this is the door I want open

and so we stay by the closed door and wonder why isn't God doing anything in my life and God's saying it's a closed door.

If you'll get moving, I'll direct you to the open door. By the way, sometimes when you get moving, he directs you back to the door

that you thought was closed before. It's an interesting thing but you've got to get moving. You got to keep moving

because God works with moving objects. Because Paul trusts him, because he kept moving, he eventually got to Troas.

Now Troas wasn't the open door. It's where he had the vision of Macedonia, where he saw where the open door was gonna be.

Troas was the place where God was going to show him the open door. All of us here's what we want.

We want to go I sure want this. I'm gonna go straight from the closed door to the open door with as little time in between.

If they could be like right next to each other, God, that would be great. In fact, it hardly ever works that way.

There's almost always a Troas in between. A place of waiting in between. Some of you are living in a community called Troas right now

waiting for God's open door. Some of you are working at Troas incorporated. Some of you are dating Sam or Sallie Troas right now.

That's where you are. Now, I gotta tell you I looked up on our church database just to make sure

nobody had the last name Troas in our church 'cause I didn't wanna get anybody in trouble and nobody does.

When you're in Troas it feels like a dead end but it's not. You're instead at the place where God is gonna show you the next open door in your life.

That's what happens as you keep moving. So this next year one of the questions to ask ourselves through the year is God where are the closed doors

and let me not take 'em too personally. Let me not let them think that you're done with me. You're not.

You still have a future, a hope, a plan for me, and so when I see a closed door let me keep moving and look for your open doors in my life,

the place where you want to work in me, where you want to work through me. A third question.

Simple question you and I can ask ourselves as we begin a new year is what seems important and what's truly important?

As you turn the page on a new year, it's a great time to look at priorities. What's most important?

What do I need to do first and God tells us again and again and again in the Bible that it's easy for us as human beings to get stuck on what seems important

and by that we miss what's truly important. Jesus understood this about us. He talked about it all the time.

One of the places is in the Sermon on the Mount. Here's what Jesus had to say in Matthew 6:25 and 33. Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or drink or about your body. What you will wear. Is not life more important than food,

and the body more important than clothes? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

So Jesus is saying food seems important but life, the life that that food sustains, that's what's truly important.

Clothes seem important but the body that God created that you're putting those clothes on, that's what's truly important.

He's saying here things seemed important, but God's plans for your life, God's kingdom, that's what's truly important and if you get stuck

on what seems important you will miss what's truly important but did you notice what Jesus said at the end? All these things will be added to you as well.

There's a promise there. Jesus is saying if you get focused on what's truly important guess what?

You put in all those things that seem important as well. God has a way of doing that. A powerful way of doing that in our lives.

You might in that verse you might circle the word with the two words seek first. Seek first.

You wanna start the new year right? Seek first. On January 1st, take time to seek first what God puts first.

I don't know how to do this. To seek first what God puts first without daily time in his word

because it's where he tells us and empowers us to live this kind of life. If I spend daily time in God's Word,

I understand what God puts first. He reminds me again and again and again, but he also through his word.

His word is powerful. He gives me power to live this putting him first kind of life.

So I wanna encourage you. If you want to live this kind of life, to spend daily time in God's Word.

Now I say that knowing that it's frustrating me saying that for a lot of you 'cause you've tried. I mean you've tried to spend daily time in God's Word

and you'd like to but you just failed again and again and again. You think I fail, God.

I mean, I can't spend time with God. You could just heap all this guilt on yourself. Can we just sweep all that aside right now

and just say okay you wanna do this. God wants you to do this. Maybe the key is trying to do it

in a different way this year and the number one encouragement I would give you is make your quiet time shorter.

I'd rather have you spend a one minute quiet time every day or most of the days this next year then try to have a 15 minute, half an hour,

hour long quiet time and only do it one day. Make 'em shorter. Just read two or three verses.

Just take five minutes. Read two or three verses. If you do this for six weeks, you will establish a habit

that will last the rest of your life. That's the power of this. So make 'em shorter.

Some of you, you might try my drive time devotions. You can get 'em drivetimedevotions.com. They're free audio devotions.

Just 10 minutes. So if you're driving to work, it's just using 10 minutes. Guys, you turn off sports radio for 10 minutes.

Listen to drive time devotions. You turn back on sports radio and you're just listening to God's Word just for 10 minutes.

That's the power of God's Word to change our lives. If you're gonna make important what God says is important, then one of the things got to do

is put his word into your life because his word reminds you, constantly remind you of what God puts first. Now what does God put first?

We've talked about this literally thousands of times. You all could give this answer. Even if you're here for the first time,

you intuitively know what I'm about to say because Jesus talks about it so much. Jesus in these famous verses

in Matthew 25:36-39 answers a question. It's good to hear his answer at the beginning of a new year. Teacher, somebody in the crowd asked him,

what command and the law is the most important? Jesus answered love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

This is the first and the most important command and the second command is like the first. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Love God and love people. That's what makes the new year new. You love God and you love people.

That's what makes every day new. That's what makes you new. So I wanna go back to that word seek.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What are you gonna seek this next year? What are you gonna chase after this next year?

What are you gonna pursue with your all this next year? What are you gonna put first this next year because Jesus here is inviting us

to an entirely different way of living. He's inviting us to flip things. What we tend to do is we seek, we chase after,

we pursue success and it might be good success, honorable success, success in our family, success in our business, success in our personal life.

We wanna achieve so we pursue that and we hope, we pray that all the relationships will fall into place and Jesus says flip that pursue loving God,

pursue loving people and I'm gonna make sure that all the success falls into place. It's not that you don't spend any time down here,

don't make any plans down here. You might even spend more time down here than you did this last year,

but you're doing it in a different way 'cause your priorities have been reversed. You're starting with love.

Love for God and love for others rather than starting with I want to have a successful year. I want you to have a successful and blessed year

but Jesus is telling us here that the way that starts is by making the decision more important than anything this next year.

My number one definition of success is I'm gonna love God and I'm gonna love others. That's what I'm gonna chase after.

The Bible says this in Galatians 5:6. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. Not a bad verse to put on a refrigerator, put in my office.

What is important is faith expressing itself in love. For 2019 to be different than 2018 for me, I've got to be different in 2019 than 2018.

For 2019 to be different than 2018 for you, it's not about your circumstances. It's about you.

You've got to be different in this next year. You have to care differently. You have to choose differently.

You have to commit differently. So I wanna end with an opportunity for a commitment. If you'd say I'm in, I will do this.

I will make this a year of putting off and putting on, of looking for God's open doors, of making God's priorities my priorities.

I'm not perfect. I know I'm gonna struggle sometimes but this is my intention.

This is my commitment. Instead of just having it as a nice thought in your mind, I'd like to end with a time of commitment.

Letting us say together to Jesus Christ this is my commitment to you as I look to a new year. Would you pray with me?

And this is my prayer. I invite you to join in this prayer of commitment. Just say father I want this to be a year of enjoying

and following the good plans that you have for me. So as I look to the beginning of this year, I make these three commitments.

I commit to putting off the old and putting on the new. I commit to stop staying at closed doors and to start looking for your open doors,

and I commit to seeking first your kingdom, your plans for my life by putting first my love for you and my love for others.

I make these commitments knowing that I need Jesus' strength and I make these commitments in faith that God you will keep your promises

and God I looked at that promise that you do have good plans for me. You do have a future for me.

You do have a hope for me and in light of those promises, I want this to be a year of pressing on toward the goal to win the prize of all

that you called me to in Christ Jesus. This is my commitment. This is my prayer in Jesus name, amen.

- Thanks for checking out this message on YouTube. My name is Jay and I'm Saddleback's online pastor. I wanna invite you to take your next step

by checking out our online community or help get you connected to a local Saddleback campus. Three things we have to offer you right now.

First, learn more about belonging to our church family by taking class 101. Second, don't live life alone and get into community

with others by joining an online small group or a local home group in your area. Third, join our Facebook group to be more engaged

with our online community throughout the week. Take your next step and learn where a local campus is near you by visiting saddleback.com/online

or email online at saddleback.com. Hope to hear from you soon.